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Last year the number of unemployed women between 50 and 64 rocketed by nearly 20 per cent.

As a result, there are 145,000 unemployed women in this age group – more than there have been since records began in 1992, the ONS confirmed. The news came as the overall unemployment rate yesterday rose to a 16-year high of 8.4 per cent of the workforce.

In total unemployment jumped by 48,000, to 2.67million, at the end of last year.

The figures also showed a record number are working part-time – up by 83,000 to 1.35million. Again the effect is felt most among women, according to the ONS, with around 750,000 saying they ‘could not find a full-time job’.

As a result, they are doing jobs which are typically poorly paid and at a level which is far below their skill and experience. Yvette Cooper, Labour’s shadow minister for women, last night accused the Coalition of having ‘a blind spot on women’ and urged ministers to ‘change tack’.

Criticisms: Yvette Cooper

She said: ‘More women are being forced out of work and back into the home by a combination of cuts to jobs and childcare.’

Graeme Cooke, an associate director of the Institute for Public Policy Research, said: ‘Women are bearing the brunt of rising unemployment.’

The timing could not be worse, in particular for the older generation of working women who are also being hit by the Government’s decision to rapidly increase the State pension age.

Nearly six unemployed are chasing every job vacancy, with the overall toll of unemployed increasing by around one million since the credit crunch began in 2007.

Experts said they were alarmed by the fact around one in three of those unemployed has been out of a job for more than 12 months.

Of the 2.67million total, the ONS said 860,000 have been trying to find work for more than a year.

Dr John Philpott, chief economic adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, said the UK jobs market is experiencing ‘a slow, painful contraction’.

He added: ‘Unemployment will crawl towards three million by the end of the year, rather than a sudden surge of joblessness.’ And Nida Ali, economic adviser to the accountants Ernst & Young’s ITEM Club, said: ‘The labour market outlook is still pretty dismal.’

Overall, employment rose between October and December by 60,000 to 29.1million, largely driven by part-time positions being filled.

Lord Freud, the minister for welfare reform, said that it was a sign the private sector is ‘still creating jobs’, but admitted competition for work is ‘tough’.

Anna Bird, acting chief executive of the Fawcett Society, said the rise in women’s unemployment was ‘turning back time’ on equality, adding: ‘These new figures must act as a wake-up call to Government – we are in a time of crisis.